Young Berkeley journalists broke landlord story early

BERKELEY - When news broke that a prominent local landlord was in hot water with federal authorities, it was no surprise to Megan Greenwell and Iliana Montauk.

The Berkeley High School students had published part of the story in the campus bi-weekly newspaper, the Jacket, more than a month ago.

On Tuesday, Lakireddy Bali Reddy, 62, was charged with the federal crimes of smuggling young Indian women into the United States for purposes of prostitution, and encouraging other Indian nationals to illegally enter and live here.

The next day, Berkeley police accused Reddy of forcing people he brought from India to work with little or no pay for his businesses, which included managing 1,000 apartment units, a restaurant and a construction company.

Two of them allegedly included the girls who suffered carbon monoxide poisoning in an apartment owned by Reddy. One of the girls died. They were reportedly seen working in one of Reddy's apartment complexes and his Pasand Madras Indian Cuisine restaurant in downtown Berkeley.

"Every other Bay Area newspaper just had the story of the tragic death, but we were finding out (the girl who died) wasn't even going to school and she was 17," said Megan, 16. "That made me think there was something bigger."

The victim was reported at the time to be 17, but police this week said she was actually 16.

Encouraged by their teacher, advisor Rick Ayers, Megan and 17-year-old Iliana, her news editor, decided to pursue the story of why the victim and her younger sister never enrolled at Berkeley High School after they immigrated last August.

After interviewing about a dozen students, teachers and others who had personal knowledge of Reddy and the sisters from India, the student reporters published their story Dec. 10.

The headline read, "Young Indian Immigrant Dies in Berkeley Apartment" with a subhead, "South Asian Community Says 'Indentured Servitude' May Be to

Blame.' "

"We had a bunch of leads. We have a lot of (south) Asian students here at the school who live in buildings owned by (Reddy)," Megan said.

Iliana admits she didn't take the story too seriously at first - at least not until she heard what her sources had to say.

"We didn't write the article to blow the whistle on anything. We were just reporting the news," Megan said.

Iliana wasn't even sure if anyone would notice their story.

"This is a high school newspaper and I really don't know who else reads it other than the kids here," she said.

In fact, there was no commotion after their story came out, at least not until this week, when The Examiner published reports of federal charges against Reddy.

Iliana first found out about it Wednesday when her journalism student teacher Bill Fisher gave her a copy of The Examiner.

"I was surprised," she said.

Megan also admitted she was shocked how big the story has become in the

Bay Area.

"It's overwhelming. I'm at a loss for words, which is rare for me," she said with a laugh.

Ayers said he's not surprised at the scoop by the Jacket, which has won national awards.

"These kids really pursued this issue of indentured servant," Ayers

said. "We never really found a smoking gun, but we just knew that there was something fishy going on." &lt;